The 2022 Road Cycling World Championships take place between 18-25 September in Wollongong, Australia.

France’s Julian Alaphilippe has won the last two men’s road race titles while Italy’s Elisa Balsamo is the defending champion in the women’s road race.

Italy’s Filippo Ganna and the Netherlands’ Ellen van Dijk took the time-trial titles in 2021.

World track champion Ethan Hayter heads Great Britain’s 26-strong team and will chase another rainbow jersey in the road race and time trial.

Hayter, who claimed world omnium gold last October, also won the Tour of Poland in August and will be joined by Fred Wright, who has impressed at the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana this year, while Pfeiffer Georgi and Anna Henderson headline the women’s team.

Van Aert, Pogacar and Alaphilippe head stellar cast

With the Tour de France’s green jersey winner Wout van Aert and current Vuelta champion Remco Evenepoel in their team, Belgium start as favourites to win their first elite men’s road race since Philippe Gilbert was victorious in 2012.

One-day race wins earlier in the season at the Bretagne Classic, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the E3 Saxo Bank Classic plus his strong showing at the Tour make Van Aert the man to beat on a course that looks suited to the puncheurs.

However, Slovenia’s two-time Tour champion Tadej Pogacar will also fancy his chances after beating Van Aert at the recent GP de Montreal.

The climb of Mount Keira and multiple loops of Mount Pleasant along with its testing descent is unlikely to deter Pogacar, who will hope that near 4,000 metres of climbing works in his favour if a bunch sprint develops at the end of the gruelling 266.9km route.

Mathieu van der Poel is the headline act in a strong Dutch team that also contains Bauke Mollema and this season’s Paris-Roubaix winner Dylan van Baarle.

French hopes are likely to rest on Christophe Laporte although Alaphilippe cannot be entirely discounted despite an injury-disrupted season that saw him miss the Tour.

The Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl rider suffered two broken ribs, a broken scapula and a collapsed lung in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege before a crash in the Vuelta saw him abandon to put his participation in Australia in doubt.

Biniam Girmay will look to follow up his success at Gent-Wevelgem and the Giro d’Italia with a podium finish for Eritrea, while the likes of Giro champion Jai Hindley and Michael Matthews will want to impress on home soil.

Dutch to dominate women’s road race?

The Dutch begin the women’s elite road race as strong favourites after winning four on the trot until Balsamo ended their run in Leuven 12 months ago.

While almost any of their eight riders could be presented as a genuine contender, Annemiek van Vleuten, is the standout name with the 164.3km course and 2,433m of elevation seemingly to her advantage.

The 39-year-old won the title in 2019 after winning the time trial in successive years and has already recorded a superb treble with victories at the Tour de France Femmes, Giro d’Italia Donne and Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta this season.

The highly decorated former Olympic champion and three-time winner Marianne Vos may come to the fore in a reduced sprint while Netherlands team-mate Demi Vollering is also a major challenger after finishing runner-up to Van Vleuten at the Tour de France Femmes.

Grace Brown is viewed as Australia’s main hope on roads close to where she grew up. The host nation have taken three silver medals in the last decade but have never won this event in its 64-year history.

The Italians, led by current champion Balsamo, Elisa Longo Borghini and Silvia Persico should be in the mix along with the likes of Denmark’s Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky, Polish rider Katarzyna Niewiadoma and Spain’s Mavi Garcia.

The race against the clock

In an opening day double-header, the women’s and men’s elite time trial gets the Road World Championships under way.

Both the women and men will tackle the exact same urban 34.2km course that consists of two 17km laps around Wollongong, to the south of Sydney.

Switzerland’s Marlen Reusser will hope to have the edge over Dutch specialist Ellen Van Dijk after beating her to gold in Munich at the European Championships in August.

However, both Brown and current Olympic champion Van Vleuten, who is also due to compete in the mixed time trial, may have a big say in the final outcome.

Two-time defending champion Ganna will be the rider to watch in the elite men’s race and the Italian will also be far from disappointed that Van Aert has decided to concentrate solely on the road race this time around.

Swiss duo Stefan Bissegger and Stefan Kung will aim to repeat of their first and second places ahead of Ganna at the European Championships last month, particularly with Australia’s Rohan Dennis not competing.

Meanwhile, Pogacar and Belgium’s Yves Lampaert may also come into contention along with Britain’s Hayter if he fully recovered from his Covid-19 related withdrawal from the Vuelta.